What Are Estate Taxes And Will They Apply To My Last Will And Testament

Estate taxes are one of the most hotly debated tax law subjects today. Essentially what happens is that when you pass on your estate will go to your beneficiaries and heirs subject to your Last Will and Testament. However, your beneficiaries and heirs will have to pay estate tax on the portion of the estate that they receive. This is a tax that occurs not only at the federal level but also at the state level as well. One of the instances where the estate tax will actually not apply is when your entire estate goes straight to your spouse without going to anyone else. This is specifically an exception that is implanted into the tax law in order to have the surviving spouse not subject to estate tax. In 2010, the estate tax was actually completely repealed but it is to come back in 2011 as such the estates will again be subject to this tax.

Thus, on a general level the estate will be subject to estate taxes unless the entire estate goes to the surviving spouse. One of the ways that you can actually reduce the amount of estate taxes that you pay is to have an attorney prepare your Last Will and Testament. What they can do is actually utilize the latest in tax law provisions in order to increase your tax savings. One of the techniques that they can actually use is a disclaimer trust which in essence works like this. This trust created by an attorney works in the way that certain portion of the estate is actually disclaimed by the surviving spouse and it goes into the trust. In turn the trust will at a later time go to the surviving spouse’s heirs and as such they can take advantage of the exclusions from estate taxes. .